I guess you’re only counting joystick jockey games and not actual space sims like Orbiter?
See, this is why I think the SF games walk a fine line. I can imagine I’m on the bridge of a ship in the SF games, but not so much with these others you mentioned. Arg.
Oh yeah, those would count huh? What other games are in that vein? Microsoft Space Simulator?
So is your criteria being the captain of a single ship? It’s obviously not based on being first-person considering the inclusion of Starflight and Space Rangers.
Odd that I’d choose this thread to de-lurk after 5 years.
I can’t believe I forgot Klingon Academy. That’s one of those games where I fell in love with the demo, playing it several times, absolutely loving the scenario presented in the demo, and really digging the opportunity to pilot a klingon ship. But then the full game came out, I bought it Day 1, came home and installed it, and played the first mission.
And I was so bored after that first mission I never played it again. But this was around the time that Planescape Torment and a bunch of other really awesome games came out, so maybe the first mission of Klingon Academy wasn’t solely to blame for my unfaithful ways.
Or ASCII character based. Starfleet I, and Starfleet II: Krellan Commander anyone? Let alone the mainframe-era antecedents.
I, too, fell in love with the demo. I even tried playing the full game a couple times. But the last time I got the urge to play it, I ran into an installer issue that prevented me from getting anywhere. Apparently, it doesn’t like anything post-Windows 98.
STAR RANGERS is a first person flight sim from Interactive Magic. :P AGAIN!
Starflight walks the line, but the main criteria is a flight simulator. The thing about Starflight is that, to me at least, I could imagine being on the bridge of a starship with the way its laid out. Games like Space Rangers and Nexus, not so much, though I do own them. ;)
Yup, most of those are already on the list, though Linewars and Warhead aren’t. And how the HELL could I forget about Escape Velocity…
Oh, those would count, yes.
Klingon Academy is one of my favorite capital ship sims. The amount of detail is INSANE, yet not overwhelming, the gameplay is awesome, and fuck, it has David Warner in it. It’s made of awesome.
Sure, list 'em out buddy!
if escape velocity counted, so should solar winds, armada and subspace.
Armada the Dreamcast game? Hell yeah. And Subspace…wasn’t that more an arcade game and less a sim?
If the “you are on the bridge” sensation is key, then I’d nominate Psi-5 Trading Company.
krok – thanks for noting Tau Ceti. Had that one in my mind’s eye but couldn’t name it…
Sigh, I’m starting to think this is getting too broad of a list, so I might need to refocus it to things that are truly space sims and not just in close proximity to being a sim.
Woah, somebody has played Tau Ceti besides myself? Both krok and Gordon Cameron? Awesome. I played that on my Amstrad 128. It took me over a year to finish.
You need to include Star Raiders - that’s a space sim by any definition.
Much as I like them as games, I would remove the Starflights, Space Ranger 2, etc. or similarly include games like Star Control 2. They’re not really simulations. I also don’t understand how you can include Earth & Beyond if you’re excluding Eve - they both had non-twitch combat that had more in common with other MMOs than joystick action-simulations.
Desslock, you’re right, I need to be more focused in this list, so I’ve removed a lot of the questionable entries.
If we broaden it enough to talk about games with spaceships, we’ll be here all decade. But no, I just wanna look at space simulations.
And oh yeah, Star Raiders, good call.